My first encounter with Paul Carson ticked me off a bit.
Fresh out of journalism school, I was volunteering as the media relations guy for the BC High School Rugby Championships. My job was to make sure media throughout the province knew the tournament was happening, and knew about stories that might be relevant to their readers/viewers. I had a long list of sports editors and sports directors to call. Future Province colleague Ben Kuzma, then a sports editor in Kamloops, was one of them. Paul Carson was another.
I reached Paul at Sports Page and made my pitch to lure the Page camera out to Thunderbird Stadium during the week. It was May, and Paul gave me a “Gee, we’ll do what we can but we’re putting most of our resources into the Canucks playoff series right now.” The camera never showed, and I realized Paul never had any intention of sending one. I was a little miffed.
Eight years later I was sports editor at The Province and I can’t tell you how many dozens of people heard this from me while I sat in that chair: “Gee, we’ll do what we can but we’re putting most of our resources into the Canucks right now.”
I understood then. Paul knew what mattered most to his viewers, and he gave it to them every night on Sports Page. And nobody can say Sports Page didn’t spread the coverage around when the situation allowed it.
It’s really sad to see somebody like that go at the relatively young age of 60, but I’ll never forget emerging from my room at 10:58 every weeknight as all five of my university roommates converged in front of the TV for hockey highlights. Those were great times, and Paul Carson made them so for a lot of people.
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Sports Page and Paul Carson were great times indeed.
Let’s shout out a little louder “Yulin’ with the Page!” this holiday season.